Birth name Bruce Morrisby Watson Role Singer Name Bruce Watson | Website Official website Instruments Vocals, guitar | |
Occupation(s) Musician, satirist, public servant Albums Unsung Heroes of Australian History, Balance People also search for Moira Tyers, Wendy Ealey, Neil Robertson | ||
Bruce Morrisby Watson (born 12 February 1956, Terang) is an Australian singer-songwriter, satirist, public servant and children’s entertainer. Watson's satires are often political in nature. His style is generally contemporary folk music, he also writes and performs children's songs, conventional folk-country music and political songs. He has issued six solo albums Politics, Sex and Religion (1990), Real World: Songs of Life, Love & Laughter (1994), Out My Window (1999), Are We There Yet? (2004), A Moving Feast (2004) and Balance (2010).
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Early life and education
Bruce Morrisby Watson was born on 12 February 1956 at Terang, a town in rural south-western Victoria. His great grandfather was Horace Watson (1862–1930), a pharmacist, who, in 1888 in Hobart, had married Louisa née Keen (died 1936) (sixth daughter of Joseph Keen, inventor of Keen's Curry) who was the recent widow of Robert Williamson. In 1899 and in 1903 Horace recorded traditional language songs by indigenous Tasmanian, Fanny Cochrane Smith. Horace and Louisa ran the Keen's Curry company and were survived by two sons, Stanley and Edward, and a daughter, Emily. In 1912 Stanley married Myra Morrisby.
Bruce Watson was educated at Eltham, Brighton Road St. Kilda and Kew primary schools; for secondary education he went to Kew High and then Wesley College.
Musical career
In 1990 Watson released his debut album, Politics, Sex and Religion. One of the tracks, "Amazon", was later covered by fellow folk artists Blackwood, Eric Bogle, and Zamponistas. In May that year, he launched his book, Songs of a Satirical Bloke, with the Canberra Times' Mike Jackson, describing him as "an academic with a wicked sense of humour". In April 1994 he performed at the National Folk Festival in Canberra, with the The Canberra Times' reporter, Graham McDonald, describing his work as "dreadfully funny parodies". Also that year he issued his second album, Real World: Songs of Life, Love & Laughter.
Watson's third album, Out My Window, appeared in 1999. Its lead track, "The Man & the Woman & the Edison Phonograph", told the history behind a family photo which depicts Bruce's great grandfather Horace Watson recording Aboriginal elder, Fanny Cochrane Smith's vocals back in 1903. A similar photo was displayed at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. In the early 2000s Watson was performing at the National Folk Festival when he caught up with Ronnie Summers, the great great grandson of Smith. Summers is also a folk singer and joined with Watson in a rendition of "The Man & the Woman & the Edison Phonograph" in 2005. Watson and Summers recorded the track as a duet for Watson's 2010 album, Balance.
Watson has been called a "major Australian songwriter and performer in the folk tradition", and "an icon of the Australian folk scene." He has performed at over 100 folk music festivals, coffee houses, and house concerts throughout Australia and New Zealand. Watson has won several "songwriting awards", such as the Declan Affley Memorial Songwriting Award at the Australia National Folk Festival.
Watson's song Lake Pedder Again from his Balance CD has appeared on The Folk Show on Radio Adelaide.